Corel Painter 12.2 review

The world of digital painting tends to be split between those in the Photoshop camp and those who prefer real natural media effects and use Painter. With version 12 Corel continued the evolution of the produce that started when the company acquired it, adding yet more features, but trying to rope it all in and tidy up the interface.

Corel Corel Painter 12.2 Price

RRP: £274.81

The result now is a program that has a steep learning curve because almost nothing is intuitive about it. Everything has to be learnt. There have been a number of bug-fix releases but with version 12.2 there’s some interesting new features. To get that far though, if you buy a retail box version, you have to download each individual update and apply them one after another.

However, the big new feature is flowmaps which work with the real watercolour brushes specifically but will also affect other brushes. These create more distinct patterns with higher peaks and lower troughs than just a paper design, so that the watercolour actually runs into them. Unlike Photoshop, when you paint with one of these brushes, there’s a processing delay as spreads, runs and mixes the watery colour.

It makes painting slower but much more natural and organic looking. The other features of the update to 12.2 are that palettes can now dock vertically, there’s enhanced multi-touch support for the Wacom Intuos 5 and support for Corel Cinco for Painter. There’s also a long list of bug fixes as well.

OUR VERDICT

Certainly if you use the watercolour brushes, this update is significant, as well as free once you own the program.